


Have A Little (If You Can't Have It All)

by moonwalkingdead



Category: Walking Dead, Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-08-17
Packaged: 2018-02-09 09:52:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1978398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonwalkingdead/pseuds/moonwalkingdead
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What is. What could have been. What can still be. Beth is taught how everything in this world is possible when she falls into a coma and lives another life as a survivor of an Apocalypse, even while unconscious in the ICU. </p><p>When she dies in both places at the same time, she meets a strange man who gives her one wish that can be granted by a higher power, as long as it will benefit someone else. So she makes a decision, and the next time Beth Greene opens her eyes, she is looking at a chubby-faced five-year-old boy named Daryl -- and on the very day his Mom is supposed to burn herself in a fire.</p><p>Just as she wished, Beth is given a chance to save Mrs. Dixon from a pointless death, to be able to change the lives of the Dixon men forever.</p><p>An AU Bethyl fic divided into several parts, filled with rainbows and fluff. 'Cause Daryl's character needs some sunshine from time to time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Beth Greene was eighteen years old when she was taken away from Daryl Dixon the night the funeral home got overrun. Several days later, in the hands of an unknown kidnapper who her prison family will never meet, she dies.

In a different plane of existence where zombies don't exist, the same eighteen-year-old Beth Greene is on her way home from a night out with friends when her vehicle gets hit by a drunk driver. 

Her car is totaled. She is severely injured. And even though the doctors save her life and she doesn't die, she doesn't immediately wake up. Instead, she sleeps for a long time and lives a different life, the other one.

\- The dead coming back and eating people. _Losing her mother and Shawn._ A group of survivors staying in the farm. The harshness of winter while on the run. _Family life in a prison with people who are not all blood._ A pretty baby girl named Judith Grimes. _Losing the prison and everyone._

A man named Daryl Dixon.

 _"What changed your mind?"_ -

When her kidnapper kills her on that other life of hers, she flatlines in the ICU too. Dead in both places at the very same time but being resuscitated in only one, she finds herself being transported elsewhere.

The people who think they know it all, they call it the _in-between_ , the space to be found after life but before death. But Beth, well, she thinks it's not so complicated a thing to name. 

She calls it _a chance._

And she takes it.

//

_She opens her eyes and finds herself in an endless white room, carpeted with the greenest grass she has ever seen, except perhaps on her Windows XP computer's default wallpaper. It goes on forever and in all directions, like she's standing in the middle of infinity._

_The sight of it tells her she's dead._

_A rumble-like laugh from behind makes her turn around. Suddenly there's a rugged-looking old man sitting there, in a recliner of all things, smirking up at her. She blinks; he wasn't there before and he looks so out of place in his stained wifebeater and torn jeans, beer bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other._

_When he speaks, it's in a twang that is familiar, but from a voice she has never heard in her life, both lives to be exact - the one where she's in an Apocalypse and the other where she still has her entire family._

_"No ya ain't sweetheart."_

_She lifts a brow in question at his opening words, more than just a little confused. "Huh?" she asks unintelligibly, not really capable of any real words at the moment._

_He takes a long drag from his cig and a gulp of beer before replying to her._

_"Ya taught ya was already dead right? Well ya ain't." He continues, burrowing deeper on his seat with a sigh. "Ya gonna be fine. My boy's gonna do all he can to save ya, he's damn good at savin' people's lives an' shit."_

_She stares at him for a while, before glancing around her again to see if there's anyone else to talk to. Unfortunately, no one is around but the two of them._

_She turns back to the old man. "Your boy?" she asks, and he nods enthusiastically, grinning proudly at her._

_"Yeah. Right now ya dead in the ICU, but he's gonna bring ya back." He then waves the hand that has his smoldering cigarette, as if waving a thought away. "But that ain't important, we ain't got time for that right now. Ya here 'cause ya get to save somebody, Beth Greene. One wish for somebody else's benefit."_

_Beth blinks again, several times. "So you're some kind of post-modern genie?" She blurts out, and the man before her who's midway into drinking snorts, sending a spray of beer in his lap._

_She wrinkles her nose in disgust, but he doesn't seem to notice because he's busy gasping for air while laughing at the same time._

_"A genie?! That's a good one! No, I ain't no genie, just a messenger'a sorts." He's back to smirking at her, and she's not sure why that facial expression is familiar, but it is._

_He finishes his drink and puts the bottle on the grass beside the recliner, before leaning back and looking at her expectantly. "So Miss Greene - who are we savin' today?"_

_Beth finds her entire life - again both lives - flashing before her eyes. And she gets it, understands what the man is telling her even though she has no idea how all this is possible._

_She knows who she wants to save._

_In her Apocalypse life, just before she was taken and killed, only one person really made an impression and she thinks of him immediately. But she hesitates._

_Because what about everyone else?_

_"Just one?" she asks, and he lifts a finger at her to emphasize the obvious. "Yeah. I know what ya thinkin but the ripples are gonna do all the work. Sometimes ya gotta just save one to save 'em all. It don't matter who."_

_Beth furrows her brows and comes up with an idea, wonders if they'll allow it... "Do I have any limitations?" she asks, averting her eyes and shuffling her feet unsurely._

_The old man's chuckle forces her to look at him again, and he has this knowing smile on that embarrasses her. "Why ya askin'? Plannin' somethin' big?"_

_She blushes and shakes her head. "Not really. I... I want to go back in time."_

_She remembers the moonshine and the cabin, the Walker and their fight, and then later on the fire. And further back, another fire that she only knew about because Carl told her what happened to Daryl's mom when the redneck was little._

_She takes a deep breath. "I want to save Mrs. Dixon's life."_

_Something like pain crosses the old man's face, but it disappears quickly and he's back to smirking. "Ya sure? Someone ya ain't even met?"_

_She wonders how he knows she hasn't met Mrs. Dixon, but decides he must know a lot of things, being a messenger as he's called himself. She nods slowly._

_"Yes. Maybe if I save her, Daryl and his brother, maybe even their Daddy, would have been able to keep the monsters at bay you know? Wouldn't have had to inflict so much pain at each other." She pauses and flushes. "But I guess you already know that about them right?"_

_He chuckles again, and this time it's almost sad, although why, Beth doesn't have a clue. "I do. But ain't it risky to be usin' ya one wish on a big maybe?" He asks, and she shrugs._

_"Well that's what I want. Is it possible?" She leans forward, a little eagerly. "Is it possible for me to go back and give Daryl his Mommy back?"_

_The corner of the old man's lips turn up into a smile and he winks. "Ya should know by know that anythin' 's possible if ya believe, Beth Greene." He answers, lighting another cigarette._

_He then snaps his fingers twice, but before Beth can react, the world turns black and he's gone._

_So is she._

..

It's bright, and for some reason even though there are branches and leaves overhead, a sliver of sunlight has managed to shine through the gaps and on Beth's face. 

She groans, squinting her eyes. And she is just about to lift a hand up to shield them when suddenly, the face of a little boy appears above her. It startles her so badly that her entire body jerks in response.

"Oh my Lord!" she exclaims, a hand flying on her chest as the boy jumps slightly as well. 

For a minute they stare at each other, and then the boy starts giggling, his blue eyes twinkling as his nose wrinkles when he speaks. "Are you okay? Why are you on the ground?"

She laughs a little too and nods at the first part of the boy's words. "Yes... I think I'm okay." she sits up slowly, looking around her and scratching the back of her head. "But I'm not sure why I'm lying here in somebody else's lawn."

She turns to him again when her question makes his hand shoot up as if he's waiting to be called to answer in class. 

"Maybe you were sleepwalking?" He suggests, and Beth laughs. She doesn't have the heart to tell him he's probably wrong, so she agrees instead.

"Oh yeah, I hadn't thought of that!" She answers with a grin, to receive a solemn nod in return. "I have a classmate who sleepwalks you know. I heard his parents say they changed all their locks so he can't get out easy."

She widens her eyes in exaggerated interest. "Oh! Is that all I have to do then? Change my locks?" she asks, and he nods again, this time firmly. 

"I think so because it worked for him. It's not safe you know." He loses all solemnity though, when he beams after a new question. "What's your name?"

She smiles at him and offers a hand. "I'm Beth Greene, but you can call me Bethie." She says, and he offers his back and shakes it as she continues. "How about you?"

It takes all of her breath away when he introduces himself, and that's when everything comes back - the two lives she has lived, her death in one of them and her near-death in the other... _the old man in the recliner and her wish._

"Nice to meet you Bethie. I'm Daryl Dixon."

For a long moment she just stares at him, unable to form words because he looks very different from the man he will eventually become. His blue eyes are round and unguarded, and his cheeks are so full, just ready to be pinched. And he's small, just... puny! She can't seem to associate this boy with the redneck she has come to know so well.

"Bethie? Are you okay?"

Her blood freezes when she spots a group of kids staring at them from the sidewalk behind little Daryl. They all have bikes, and the absence of one without a rider clues Beth in, that he doesn't have his own.

She pales, her heart beating painfully in her chest as she remembers Carl's retelling of the story. If Daryl's out here playing with the neighborhood kids and he's the only one without a bike...

"Daryl, where's your Mommy?" she asks him, and he looks at her oddly but answers anyway. "At home of course. D'you know her? Are you her friend?" But she ignores his questions in favor of another one of her own. 

She grips his little shoulders with just enough strength so he knows she means business. "How long ago did you leave her there?" she asks seriously, and he shies away from her slightly, looking nervous.

Although he still answers her, the good and trusting boy that he is. "Don't know... I haven't been gone long, I swear!" He replies almost fearfully, and she stands up, looking around wildly, her gaze skyward.

No smoke. _None yet._

"We have to go to your house, check on your Mommy," she looks down to find little Daryl still staring at her, and with something akin to wonder, suspicion and awe in his expression. 

She doesn't notice it much though, because of the panic rising inside her. "Come on Daryl, we have to go now!" When he hesitates, she decides it's time for a white lie. "And yes, I'm a friend of your Mom's!"

He offers a hand out to her as if the last part of her sentence is all he's been waiting to hear. "I'll take you to her but you have to promise not to tell her I snuck out while she was sleeping, okay?"

She nods, if a little too quickly. "Okay, I promise." 

And Beth breathes a secret sigh of relief at his agreement, eyes scanning the sky again. _I have to get to her before that fire even starts,_ she tells herself as she takes his little hand in hers.

He tugs at her arm then, forcing her to look down at him. And just before he turns around to lead her away, Daryl Dixon gives her the widest, happiest smile she has ever seen from him.

A part of Beth turns into complete mush and she calms down a bit. She's already here after all, to make sure Mrs. Dixon survives this day.

She follows him with a little smile of her own.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before you proceed with this chapter, you may want to read chapter one again since it has been edited and changed, if only just a bit.

The difference between adult Daryl and kid Daryl is this: _everything_. The little him converses, is not afraid of skin contact, and actually shows feelings (quite exuberantly too). And though he's not as loud or talkative as most children, still. This is not the Daryl who prefers the woods to people, who doesn't like being touched, and who distrusts everyone, sometimes including himself. 

No, this is Daryl when he was still whole, the _sweet_ one before all the damage, and Beth can't help but think that perhaps, he would have stayed this way if his Mom hadn't died. 

_And she won't,_ she tells herself, tightening her hold on the little hand grasping hers, like a kind of promise. _That's what I came here for._

But then, Beth smells the smoke the moment little Daryl opens the front door of a small one-story, and fears she may be too late.

"No, NO!" she exclaims, suprising the boy beside her as they step inside, and then she's running down the hall and following the smell of an ongoing fire, with Daryl right on her heels. Any attempts of being calm and collected are gone. 

"Bethie, what's wrong?!" Daryl is panicking right beside her, skipping from foot to foot and wringing his hands as they stop before a door that has an orange glow coming from underneath it.

She doesn't answer and instead, without skipping a beat, Beth grabs the door handle to shove it open, hoping there's still someone inside the room to save.

But she _misses_.

It's not because she has poor coordination, it's nothing like that. Door knobs are big, simple things and damn impossible to not grasp if you're aiming for them. Her hand, it just went right through, as if she's not real, like she's made of nothing.

Beth has her mouth open in shock, looking down at Daryl who is wearing the same flabbergasted expression. "Your hand..." the boy sounds amazed and not at all afraid. And maybe he's not, unlike her, because she's absolutely terrified.

He's grinning now and unaware of how scared she's feeling, an impressed look on his face. "Does this mean you can walk through walls Bethie?" he asks excitedly, completely unaware of what's happening at the moment. "Because that's so cool!"

Only a loud, groaning sound from the other side of the door catches their attention, and amidst the panic and fear that's threatening to take over her, Beth remembers why the hell she's here. 

She tries her hardest to push the fear down and takes charge.

"Daryl," her face changes, she knows. Feels the knit of her brows and the lines of her mouth tighten with resolve. She kneels before him and continues. "I want you to listen carefully. We don't have much time, so you have to do what I tell you, okay?"

Boy Daryl must have felt the shift in Beth's mood, if he hasn't already taken notice of it by the change on her entire demeanor. "Okay," he nods, his young face a solemn mask. 

"I want you to call 911 and tell them there's a fire." His eyes widen, darting from her to the closed door and back, but he just nods again, waiting. "After the call, go to the bathroom and get yourself wet under the shower. Make sure you're soaked. Then come back."

She reaches up and runs her fingers on the side of his face. "Go, do it now."

She turns away as Daryl scurries off to do what he's been told, and faces the doorway again with a harsh, shaky inhale that she holds in. Closing her eyes, she only exhales deeply once she has stepped forward.

And when Beth opens her eyes again, she's in the master's bedroom, which has turned into an inferno.

Part of the bedroom is on fire, including a portion of the ceiling near the door. If it all began from a cigarette, it must have rolled off and fallen a distance away on the carpet, because the flames are only beginning to lick the bottom of the bed where Mrs. Dixon is in.

She reaches out to place a hand on her arm, but like air, again her hand goes through her and, unable to really touch anything, Beth looks on in horror, muttering _shitshitshit_ under her breath over and over. 

And she wonders how she can touch Daryl and not everything else, and how that handicap is supposed to help her with saving anyone.

_Some wish this is._

"Bethie?" It takes her a few minutes to realize that someone is calling her from outside the bedroom, before the door opens. And it must be the rush of heat that does it because Daryl, dripping water everywhere, recoils violently as it does.

She rushes towards him and finds she can feel his skin when her hands find his shoulders. And now the heat of the room too, for some reason. It mystifies Beth, feeling only through Daryl, but she can think about that later after they've saved Mrs. Dixon.

 _They_. Because she can't possibly do this alone.

"We have to move your mom, get her out of here." Beth has herself braced around Daryl's little body, shielding him from the intense warmth that feels like its burning her back. But better her than him is what she tells herself as she stares down at him and sees how scared he has become. "We'll help each other okay?"

He nods and, still partially embracing Daryl as they walk into the room and keeping at least one body part touching him, they reach the bed relatively unharmed. 

But the problem they now have is, how are they supposed to move Mrs. Dixon through a little boy's strength alone?

"Mommy? Ma!" Daryl is shaking her Mom's arm, but she doesn't wake, only stirs and mumbles incoherently, doesn't open her eyes. And the room is getting hotter, the smoke thicker... and even while holding the little boy, although her skin can feel, she still can't touch anything else. 

_Holding the little boy._

Beth's eyes widen when an idea hits her, and although it's not the best, it'll have to do. Without much effort, she heaves the boy up on the mattress, causing a surprised squeal from Daryl. 

"What are-" he's just beginning to ask, but she doesn't let him finish and instead, embraces him around the middle from behind and speaks. "You keep a tight hold on your Mommy, and let's pull together all right?" 

Daryl turns his head slightly to look at Beth's face where it is, on his right shoulder. He bites his lip as it trembles, and she nuzzles his cheek to comfort him, and also herself. When she pulls away, he nods. "Okay."

"On three. As hard as we can."

They give Mrs. Dixon a solid yank that has her rolling to the edge of the bed and the both of them flying to the carpet. Looking up at their work though, she remains on it, doesn't fall on the floor.

And the fire's already on the bedspread.

"Dang," Beth mutters through a mouthful of Daryl's hair where he's seated, back to and on top of her where're they've fallen. She looks down at the boy, checks him for any injuries as they cough up a storm. "Are you okay?"

He's nodding, but his eyes are nearly bulging out in fear, staring at the growing flames on the other side of the bed. It forces Beth back into action, and she disentangles them, forcing Daryl to his feet.

"We gotta keep moving her Daryl. I need you to push your Mommy all the way off the bed, away from the fire." She lifts him again, this time behind Mrs. Dixon, eyes mindful of his feet. "Don't burn yourself."

Daryl whimpers, sneakered feet all over the place. "It's hot, it's hot Bethie!" And she feels like crying at the look of pain on his face in hysteria and in fear that she won't be able to save his Mommy after all, but she doesn't. 

She pulls herself together. "Then push her already, come on!" she encourages, and so he does. And it's just then that there's another loud, groaning noise, and Beth looks up to find a piece of the ceiling breaking off, to fall partly at Daryl's little body.

_"WATCH OUT!"_

Beth moves without thinking, only has one thought in mind: protect Daryl the same way he's protected her. She throws herself on top of him, pulling him in her arms at the same time he pushes his Mommy with all his might.

Mrs. Dixon falls on the carpet with a pained groan, still asleep, as Beth takes the end of a smoldering beam on the right shoulder. She screams in pain at the burning sensation, but doesn't let Daryl go.

Because if she does, the beam will go right through her and fall on this beautiful, scared boy, and she won't let that happen.

"Bethie!" 

She can't feel anything but an excruciating sting on her back, and Beth only realizes her eyes are closed when she opens them again, she finds that the boy beneath her is crying, the blue of his eyes so electrifyingly bright with fear.

She bites her bottom lip as she moves to keep from crying out, pushing the wood stuck on her skin with a nudge so it falls a ways off on the bed, all without letting Daryl go as plaster begins falling upon them in white flakes. 

"'S all right," she mumbles in between gritted teeth, gasps of pain, half carrying and half dragging them on the floor as they continue coughing.

But it's over she thinks, almost over. 

Far off, she can already hear the sound of sirens wailing, but nothing is louder than the gasping breaths of the coughing, crying five-year-old in her arms as she curls her body around his, shielding him from the intense heat. 

But also comforting him as best she could, because that's what she does best. 

"You're all right. Your mommy's all right," Beth nurmurs, before wincing when her shoulder is stretched by the tightening of her arms around Daryl. She can live with the pain and doesn't ease up though.

They embrace each other for what feels like years, but really is just a few minutes, not even aware that while the entire room is ablaze, the small space surrounding them and Mrs. Dixon is free of flames.

"What in the world..." Beth looks up, and Daryl does too, at the sound of a man speaking. It's a firefighter in full garb, and he sounds stunned and amazed as he gazes at them, at the sight of this untouched portion of the bedroom, glowing with some kind of blue light coming from nowhere.

He quickly recovers, probably remembering his duty, but not without making the sign of the cross. He shouts behind him before apprpaching. "We got a lady and what looks like her kid in here! I'll need help!" 

And then he's opening his arms for Daryl, echoing Beth's earlier words in a soothing voice that's both firm but gentle. "Come on boy, it's all right. You're all right, and so is your Mom."

Daryl hesitates, clinging only to Beth who the fireman has not acknowledged at all, who no one else seems to see, but she only nods at him encouragingly, touches a finger to his soot-stained cheek. 

"Go, go with the nice fireman. I'm right behind you." He does as he's told, and Beth watches the fireman carry little Daryl away but doesn't immediately follow.

She only exits the house after two more firefighters have carried Mrs. Dixon out of the burning house where a crowd of neighbors have formed, and she breathes fresh air into her oxygen-starved lungs as she turns away from them.

With tears in her eyes and a painful wound on her back, Beth watches the Dixon house burn and is glad Mrs. Dixon isn't there.

It's in the middle of wiping her nose with the sleeve of her shirt when something collides with her left leg hard. She looks down and, through blurry eyes, grins.

"Bethie! You're okay!" 

She nods and kneels on the dirt, presses her face against Daryl's with a hiccup. "So will you be. From now on." She whispers, embracing his little body to hers one last time.

She waits to disappear now that her good deed is done, that she's saved Mrs. Dixon, but Beth remains where she is, hugging Daryl close. At the back of her mind, she hears a voice that isn't hers - a reply to her unspoken question.

It's the old man's, sounding very much amused. _Ain't done in there yet, sweetheart._

An ambulance takes the Dixons to the nearest hospital, an invisible Beth in tow.


End file.
